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Britishers public losing faith in Blair

LONDON: A new Gallup poll shows the British public has become increasingly disillusioned with Prime Minister Tony Blair, partly over the way Labour picked its candidate for London mayor, the Daily Telegraph said on Friday.

Although the ruling party maintains a comfortable enough lead to ensure a second term, the poll showed the opposition Conservatives scoring more than 30 percent for the first time since the 1997 general election.

"On every available measure, Tony Blair and his government have declined markedly in public esteem over the past year," the right-leaning Telegraph said.

Approval of the government's record fell from 49.1 percent in January to 47 percent in February, the poll of 4,062 voters last month showed. The figure was 52.1 percent in December.

The question over voting intentions showed Labour slipping from 52.5 percent in January to 51.3 percent in February, while support for the Conservatives bumped up 0.8 percent to 29.1 percent. The Liberal Democrats rose 0.6 percent to 12.9 percent.

But a "Gallup snapshot" of 1,018 voters in the first week of March told a slightly different story, with Labour on 51 percent, the Conservatives on 31 percent and the Lib Dems on 11 percent.

The Telegraph said the all-important measure was the answer to the question "Do you think the government has on balance been honest and trustworthy?"

More than half of those polled -- 52.3 percent -- said "No", a 2.6 percent jump from January.-Reuters